Sunday, June 29, 2014

Birthday 2014: Meet Ups and Pig Outs Part 2

[This is a scheduled post.]

~*Flea-ing with Evan*~

I don't know if our flea market day is considered a birthday meet up. Evan and I would always meet up in March and May for each other's birthday dinner treat. She was busy clearing work for her trip in March and I was busy clearing work after my trip in May that we decided to simply hang out for dinner on the day of the flea market.

We haven't flea-ed for many years and our wardrobes were bursting at their seams. Some clothing items were even lying around in boxes, suitcases and paper bags in our rooms that our hubby thought they were a complete eyesore. We had been incessantly nagged at by the hubbies to do something about them. When we finally snagged a flea slot, the smiles on our hubs' faces resembled the smiles on the Smiley Face paper fans-- the fans which we used to fan ourselves as beads of perspiration glided down our skin like oil on a well-slicked frying pan on a sweltering Sunday afternoon.

We had Nando's Chicken for dinner. My plate looked like it was on a diet on its own. I had to have my greens so while I force fed kh with greens, I stole his fries at the same time.

When Chris and Kh stood talking together from afar, Evan and I could not help laughing at their similar Adidas jersey, khaki berms, casual flip flops (and their lack of fashion sense), posing with arms folded like Sir Stamford Raffles as they engaged in what appeared like a serious conversation. After that when we enquired what they were talking about, Kh revealed that they were actually gossiping about us and how we can never make up our minds on what to eat!

It was difficult to really have a good chat that day since in between chats, we were entertaining customers. We should really meet up more often. There seemed to be so many pending updates on both sides and so little time.

~*Lunch with my Other Family*~

We met up at the Bakerinz near Charlene and my workplace for a quick lunch with Cyn mommy and my godkids. The last time I saw them was in December which was considered a long time since this is only group of friends whom I would meet up more regularly.

The last time I saw my god daughter Mia, she was just a month old. Even though I often keep myself updated on Mia from Cyn's postings on Facebook, it was still surprising to see how much Mia had grown!

Her slate-grey eyes had slowly taken a more brownish hue but she is still as adorable as ever! All the staff in the restaurant was cooing over her.

Cyn said that Mia's eyes are like radar, scanning the people around her and only allowing people whom she is familiar with to carry her. If anyone doesn't pass her radar scan, she would wail very loudly upon being carried by that person. That's everyone imitating Mia's grumpy frown.

Charlene told me that Mia wailed very loudly the last time she carried her. Hence, I was quite certain that Mia would wail very loudly too since I wasn't any familiar person. But a godma has to be a godma and be insistent on carrying her god daughter.

I was surprised when she did not cry at all. She made some little "mm... mm..." noises and I almost thought she was gonna cry next...

... but Cyn mommy and God son Jase started making a fool of themselves to entertain her and keep her from crying. Lol! Mia especially loved Jase kor kor's voice and funny faces.

I didn't know that Cyn snapped soooooooooo many pictures of us. It was difficult to capture Mia's smile but at least she wasn't wailing and looked cute in some shots. Just focus on Mia's cute chubby face and ignore my stupid face for some, will you?

Wefie shot.

When Mia started laughing, I handed her over to Charlene so that she could carry Mia when she wasn't crying for once. Lol...

Here are some lovely selfies of Charlene and me with Mia at the expense of Cyn and Jase. What you don't see is Cyn and Jase continuing to make funny faces while Char snapped these.

Charlene got me a T-shirt with a kitty cat popping out from the pocket. I love it! Sad to say, I would not be able to wear this as the T-shirt went missing after I put it to wash. =(

It was a great meet up and even though there were kids around, I managed to catch up with Cyn and Char quite a bit over a short lunch. We even got to play a 3D Snake and Ladder with Jase while lunching and chatting. Talk about multi-tasking, something which I'm really bad at. I love random little gatherings like these with my dear friends/families!
View this anigif on my Instagram with Michael Jackson's Love Never Felt So Good audio as the background music.

~*Buffet Town with the F4 Minus 1*~

HS was back in Singapore for a few days and she was craving for Japanese food especially sashimi. Hence, Em suggested Buffet Town one of the evenings after work. The sashimi was super fresh and I love the raw salmon a lot. There was a slight oily fish taste which I really adore.

The other food was so-so. If you are not one who would whack the sashimi and fresh oysters, your money would not be well-worth the trip to Buffet Town.

Unfortunately, WY wasn't able to join us at the very last minute as she was suspected of contracting HFMD during that period of time. She had since been cleared of it. We haven't gathered with full F4 force for the past 3 meet ups.
(Aside: That reminds me, I haven't blogged about our last 3 meet ups!)

Even though HS's birthday is in August together with WY, Em and I decided to celebrate with her in June since we had been missing hers the past 2 years when she was overseas.

Sweet Em was late as she was busy getting cards and flowers for HS and me! *touched*

Em said, "I specially chose hot pink coz it is hot and sweet like you gals."
Our expression was (｡♥‿♥｡) and (⊙_◎) at the same time.

Our gifts for one another:
Behind - The Little Twin Star gift bags from me were for Xmas or rather, gifts of the year gift pack.
Middle - The boxes of chocolates were from HS from Switzerland.
Front - The cards and flowers were shared gifts from Em and WY.

Yummy chocolate snacks!

Em with all her gifts. Em was really touched by the words on the tin can.

Hs's with all her gifts. HS became a kitchen goddess with all the meals she whipped up in Switzerland.

Me with all my gifts. Hmm... why are we holding 2 flowers?

Our birthday cards contain lots of sweet words. HS wrote on behalf for WY on mine and I on hers since Em would already have to write on both our cards. When we opened our cards to read, it was simply telepathic. Too bad, Wy didn't know what we wrote on behalf for her. The cards also served as "ang pow" for our cash gift. Yay! I'm so gonna use the cash to buy something which I would use frequently to remember you gals by.

~*TCC with the OEBabes*~

This group which consists of current colleagues and ex colleagues met up at TCC for lunch to celebrate SY and my birthday.

I used to love TCC a lot but the menu at the Vivocity branch seemed to be really different. Many of my favourite dishes were not on the menu. At least the cakes were good.

Pretending to blow and cut for photo purpose.

We got a Coach wristlet for SY. My wishlist of Yankee candles is not pictured here coz I went with a group of them to choose my candles and brought them home the previous week.

It is great to have lovely colleagues at work and at play.

All the photos in this post are taken using iPhone 4s, Saumsung Note 3 and other unknown handphone with camera function.

~*Opinions?*~

Ok, so I've finally wrapped up my birthday happenings 2014 within June without having to do a serious "throwback". That's a mean feat for me! So may I hear some applause? No? Ok I will go sit at the corner, draw circles on the floor and eat some worms.

I've already cut back on blogging about every single outing whereby there are photos taken. Time and energy aren't smiling at me. Sometimes I wonder if I should just stop blogging about events in my life. Ever since I've started on this job which does not allow the use of camera/camera phones, I realized that I do not take as many photos as before even on weekends. Without photos, it seems like I'm not able to remember a lot of things that happened. In a way, Instagramming and blogging allow me to capture my memories more tangibly and it is always fun to reminisce as I write about these memories.

Do you enjoy reading lifestyle recap posts like this or do you prefer it when I write about certain topics? The latter usually happens when I'm doing filler posts in between photo-intensive ones. Let me know in the comments section.

37 comments:

Hi Jo! You have been so spoiled by everyone, happy for you! Mia is just a sweet pie, you both are utterly tender in the pics together!:) And you just made me want sashimi, I see it was very fresh!:) Btw, I get you, especially instagram is the same for me; you should blog about what makes you happy and free to do, also this kind of post which represents you :) Happy Sun dear! xo

You're a sweetie pie, Lilli. Love seeing you here. I hope you managed to fulfil your sashimi craving. Thank you for your inputs on my blogging dilemma. It is great to hear the opinions of my blogger friends like you. *hugz*

I love seeing newcomers around, Eva. I would usually follow back if we have enough meaningful exchanges and connections. Will drop by your blog soon and looking forward to seeing you around more often. =)

First of all, happy birthday!!! it looks like you had a great time with your family and friends :) loved your cute pictures!I invite you to visit my blog and if you like it let me know if you would like to follow each other and keep in touch.XOXO

Thank you for your comment and well wishes, Milu. I love seeing newcomers around. I would usually follow back if we have enough meaningful exchanges and connections. Will drop by your blog soon and looking forward to seeing you around more often. =)

The friends that flea together - stay together! Hehehe! I couldn't help myself Jo! I've always wanted to do a flea thing but I can never work schedules around others and I don't think I could handle it on my own since I am so bad at math, someone is bound to take advantage of me! So I just stick to ebaying my stuff. Which is tedious and some people are just so annoying! BTW that Nando's, yum. Serious craving for it now. It's funny how different Nando's is in both our countries. I mean the chicken looks the same but our rice is different to yours and we definitely don't have those greens you have on your plate. And we don't have wedges either! Your god daughter is the cutest! And it looks like she's really content being in your arms! Luckily, nothing worse than crying babies O_o lol! Seriously though you have some of the sweetest friends, I love these meaningful meetups of yours, and the gifts are such a cute touch. I wish I wasn't guilty of not making time for my own friends, life happens :o(

I love your posts, granted I've been here a couple of times now, but I do love how personal you allow your readers to be with you. It gives us an instant connection to the sweetheart you truly are. But if you feel like you want to cut-back or focus/introduce another area then do it! It won't hurt either way. I take it this blog of yours is like a journal or "dear diary" of sorts and you can certainly introduce other areas if you please. It's your outlet, it's your blog and you can do whatever you like with it, as long as it's something your passionate and love, because people can always tell when your not feeling something and just posting for the sake of posting. Whatever you choose, I'll support you 130%!

"The friends that flea together - stay together!" is such a catchy rendition of the original phrase. Good one, Sonia! And yes, I have some of the sweetest friends. Friends who are true and do not stab one another in the backs are what I'm blessed with and I always thank my lucky stars for that. Oh well, I do have people as per mentioned above around me too but those would have to be outta my radar for I would not have the energy to deal with all these.

Thank you so much for your sweet words and also for your inputs on my blogging dilemma. I really appreciate every single one of you who gave me your opinions. It seems like we are both on the same sort of boat during the same period of time and I smile reading your comment. It's so cute how before that, I was replying to your blogging deadend post and now you're replying to mine. Kisses!

Do not keep all the worms for yourself! They sound marvelous. Maybe a worm risotto perhaps :) I speak for all your readers because I enjoy pretending to be an arrogant know it all when I say we visit your blog because of you. So whatever you feel like posting, we are going to enjoy because it comes from you. It is your royal Jo-ness we seek and that alone :)

That baby!!!! So much fun and those pictures are sweet and adorable. What a cutie! Looked very comfy being held by you too. So glad you have your friends and wonderful events, dear. Very happy for you :) xo

Ok... Coz we are friends, I would share my worms with you. We could make spaghetti or ramen. How fun! Thank you so much for your sweet words and also for your inputs on my blogging dilemma. I really appreciate every single one of you who gave me your opinions and wow... "your royal Jo-ness". I'm so flattered. You're so sweet, Rick. Maybe next time I would call you "Shamu". I always wonder what it means.

Hi! :) I personally like fashion/shopping blogs but with lifestyle intermixed. I'm such a shopaholic and curious when I see what other girls shop for or what's trendy. Lifestyle blogs are my favorite though because I get to learn more about certain areas and I learn more about the writer as well. Your blog is great!

Thank you so much for your comment and also for your inputs on my blogging dilemma. I really appreciate every single one of you who gave me your opinions and I'm glad to hear that you like my blog even though you personally prefer fashion/shopping blogs. =)

Hi Jo, this is such a wonderful collection of photo memories, love the first two pics, you both look adorable. Did you know Nandos is a South African franchise/restaurant, it's like our national place to eat at. Mia is absolutely gorgeous, I am sure you make the most wonderful godmother. All the food looks fantastic. Happy Belated Birthday, hope you had the most memorable time! Its fun getting to learn more about your life via your blog. Its always great hearing your opinion, have a creative week ahead.

Ah, I think I've read about Nando's being from South Africa but it slipped my mind so hearing this from you is akin to new knowledge. I wonder if the Nado's at your hometown is the best since it's globalizing and I'm sure the original would taste the best. Thank you for your sweet comment as always and I also love hearing from you!

Applause to Jo for this wonderful post. Please do not stop the lifestyle recap posts. I love to read and see the photos. It's like I'm with you there and having a lot of fun. I would have probably made 10 posts out of it cos there were so many exciting things (but our posts are always short anyway). I hope you made a lot of money at the flea market with your friend. That reminds me. We have an awful lot of clothes lying around in boxes too. We should really sell them. Can I steal Mia? Omg she is the cutest and she's has a right to cry if she doesn't want to be carried around by strangers lol. Smart girl. Have a happy Monday Jo :D

Thank you for your sweet words on Mia and also thanx for sharing with me your opinion on my blogging dilemma. I appreciate it when people value my effort put into crafting my posts and I love it when you say it feels as if you're there with me when you read my posts. I can imagine the amount of stuff you and your sisters have to flea and I would definitely be trawling your stall should you have one coz all of you have such gorgeous clothes. Kisses Mira. You're always so lovely!

"Flea-ed"--haha, I love that verb you made up, Jo! Flea-ing looks like it was lots of fun. I love scrolling through your photos and seeing what you have to say. It's so interesting glimpsing into people's lives like that and your photos make the experience much more livable. :) Have a wonderful week, my friend!

Coining new words is one of my hobby. You are good at that too! You coin phrases that are so full of Ali-ness. Thanx for sharing with me your opinion on my blogging dilemma. I appreciate it when people value my effort put into crafting my posts. xoxo

You have some of the yummiest looking meetups ever Jo! Being able to celebrate with friends makes birthdays even more fun and it looks like you had some really fun times. Your little god daughter is such a cutie and what striking eyes. My mom said when I was born my eyes were bluish but they changed after about a year.

You may definitely take the Sam Haskins quote image. It's not mine either. I credited the source in my post. I don't think you've asked me about my camera but even so I would think you did so out of curiosity more than the other thing just because of our previous interactions. Thank you for your very kind words. I'm glad you enjoy my shoots with Rena and Ian and it motivates me to want to do more with them. I have many ideas but it takes abit of time to actually execute them and sometimes I need hubster's help with them.

It's nice that you were able to plan your Taiwan trip just 2 weeks ahead of going and it all worked out for you :) My husband was born in Taiwan and I lived there for several years as a child so it's special to us as he still has family there. MY MIL just returned from a trip there with all these treats for us. We're hoping to plan a trip to Asia maybe next year.

Thank you for your sweet words on Mia, Rowena. You had blue eyes when you were a baby? You must be such a special looking Asian baby! I look forward to your photography posts always and your hubster is so sweet to help you with your photoshoot. My hubz hates to help me with photos. Phew about the fact that I haven't asked you about your camera. Hehehe And you're so right that previous interactions definitely help a lot in easing any misconception. I hope your trip to Taiwan and Asia in general materializes! xoxo

I love the photo of the gifts you complied together! oh oh and *applause furiously* I think it's a feat to accomplish any goal whether it's big or small!

Hmm...I honestly think you should blog about whatever the heck you want. I know that's what I do now and I feel much less pressured to blog in a timely manner or reply comments quickly. (not that I don't appreciate them lol) But I also know that no one cares about my life as much as myself (or I wouldn't expect anyone to haha) and therefore I should really just do what makes me happy instead. I still take others opinions and what not into consideration. If you're not happy doing filler posts or feel guilty about them then I say just don't post at all and wait for something you really want to post about. If you're happy with filler posts then go for it! =)

Thank you for your kind comment and also thanx for sharing with me your opinion on my blogging dilemma, Sam. I appreciate it when people value my effort put into crafting my posts. Oh, definitely there are people who care about your life. You just didn't expect them to (as you said). I would still take a peek into your life full of high tea, droolicious food, cruises and random happenings in life. Filler posts are actually quite easy for me to do and it helps to keep my blog running. Hehehe... I don't like leaving the last post idle for more than 2 weeks. I appreciate you coming here to visit regularly despite cutting down on your time spent on blog-related stuff. Kisses to you!

I haven't been to the flea market in years! Though I do prefer thrift shopping more, but somehow my parents are against me buying second-hand clothes. (I'M TRYING TO SAVE MONEY HERE, PEOPLE!!)I've wanted to go to Nando's for the longest time...BUT KINDA LAUGHING AT YOUR MEAL PORTIONS. Your meal is definitely on a diet!! (I don't know the prices of Nandos, but if that plate was expensive....I'd be worried!) Also, kinda laughing at the men's somewhat matching outfits. Talk about a bromance! And oh man, that really sucks about the cat shirt :( But it is definitely worthy of being stolen--that shirt is awesome, man D:

While I do like reading about your lifestyle posts, I do wish that perhaps you could split them up more? I have no attention span and by the time I get to the end of the post, I can't remember the parts earlier in the post. >.<And to an extent, I might be concerned about issues of privacy because your posts are photo intensive. On the other hand though, I am honoured that you choose to spend the time writing out these posts and sharing them with us. It's always nice to read/catch up with friends across the globe :3

Lol... My parents have the same thinking about buying 2nd hand clothing items too!!! I guess Asian parents are more superstitious.

Thank you for your comment and also thanx for sharing with me your honest opinion on my blogging dilemma, Vanessa. I'm aware of my long photo-intensive posts and I hope the disclaimer at the top of such posts to pre-empt people to click the x-button helps. That said, I've been breaking up my posts into parts; hopefully it would be easier for my friends and readers to digest. I think I would break them up into further bite-sized pieces in future. As for privacy issues, no worries on that. My friends once commented that I've got "welfare for them for my blog" coz I would always make sure that I do not post anything my family and friends are not fine about. Speaking of which, I've got a cousin who made a disclaimer that nobody is to upload photos of her kids on any social media platform. She has the cutest kids ever so it is a waste but we all respect her decision. In a way, whatever I post on www are stuff which my family and friends and myself are ok to let "the world" know. It's great that you've voiced out this concern on privacy coz I've not heard about it from other people and so it is really refreshing and I appreciate your opinion a lot! xoxo

I love reading sincere comments and hearing your voice. While blatant self promotion of blogs and follow for follow requests are not advisable, I would love if you leave a mark here with a trackback link so that I could connect with you. I reply to comments here or on your blog so don't forget to check back on replies! =)

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